CODEWITHSUNDEEP
outlookoutlook-form
rhanajoy
rhanajoy

Reputation: 81

How to programmatically set the subject (title) of an Outlook 365 meeting from user data entered at runtime

Background

Our Training team uses an Excel worksheet to track our online training, listing the date, customer, topic, type of training, type of meeting (Teams live event or Teams meeting), presenter, and moderator. In addition to the information in the worksheet, we create an Outlook 365 meeting for each workshop. The subject (title) of the Outlook meeting takes this format: {Customer} {Topic} {Event Type} {Meeting Type} {Start}.

Goals

  1. Replace the Excel worksheet with an Outlook 365 view in table layout, eliminating a time-consuming and redundant step in our process.

  2. Minimize data entry.

  3. Do 1 and 2 in such a way that I can distribute the solution to our Training team without involving a request to systems admins or requiring our team to do any heavy lifting code- or configuration-wise.

Problem

I've tried two methods and am getting stuck at the same spot: I can't figure out how to set the meeting request subject equal to the information entered by the user.

Progress

Method 1: Outlook form or template

I modified P.2 in an appointment request in Outlook 365 to be a data entry form for the custom fields Customer, Topic, EventType, MeetingType, Presenter, and Moderator. Another custom field, TrainingEvent, is a read-only Boolean set to Yes when the appointment is created. I use this field to filter non-training events out of the new calendar view. Another custom field, EventID, has an initial value that concatenates the other fields in the order we need for the meeting subject. I saved the modified request as both a form and an Outlook template to test each method.

Both work fine, right up to the point of setting the actual meeting subject equal to the EventID. That is, when I submit the request the meeting is created and all the fields are populated with what I entered. The subject remains empty. I can't find any guidance, using VBA or otherwise, on how to populate the subject based on user entry at runtime.

Method 2: Microsoft Forms + Automate

So I tried another way: I created a form in Microsoft Forms to collect the same data, then ran it through Microsoft Automate modifying an existing template that creates an Outlook 365 event when a form is submitted. Same result: The event is created with all my entered data, but the subject remains empty.

Obviously, I could just ask our team to enter all the separate fields and also the subject, but that defeats goal #2.

What am I missing? This feels like it should be such an easy problem to solve.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 524

Answers (1)

rhanajoy
rhanajoy

Reputation: 81

I found the answer. I added the Subject field to my custom P.2 (data entry form). In the field properties on the Value tab, I changed "Property to use" from Value to Text and set the initial value to the concatenated field EventID. Voila!

Upvotes: 2

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